MORE RIVER OUTLAWS
"And I have a notion that we'll run across that waif again," Case
said. "I imagine that he is somewhere down the river, and that Red
will not be far away when we come to him. Somehow, we bunt into
mysteries wherever we go!"
"I've got a hunch," Alex. exclaimed, "that we are headed for news of
that warehouse robbery at Rock Island! It seems to me too, that the
boy had something to do, with it, or is mixed up in it in some way."
"He looked pretty lean and shabby for a chap who had been interested
in a diamond robbery!" Jule suggested. "Perhaps he's not guilty--just
suspected!"
The day was fine and the flood was running out. The river showed less
wreckage than had been seen the day before, for the lowering water
caused much of it to land on headlands and sandbars. During the
forenoon the _Rambler_, which was still leaking a trifle, passed
several river shanties and houseboats, tied up below half-submerged
islands, where they were protected from wreckage.
These houseboats are common all along the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee
and Mississippi rivers. Fishermen and indolent river characters live
in them the year round. Some of the boats are of good size and well
built and furnished, while others are merely shanties built on rafts
of logs and other spoils taken from the waters.
Many of the boats carry whole families, and go sailing toward the Gulf
with streamers of shirts and petticoats blowing from clotheslines.
Others carry two or three men and numberless dogs. Those who reside on
the boats live principally on fish, and on corn meal and pork
purchased with the proceeds of fish sales.
Shortly after dinner the boys were asked to come on board a shanty
boat navigated by two men and numerous dogs, so the _Rambler_ was run
alongside and Clay and Alex. went aboard, where they were warmly
welcomed by two Chicago young men who were making the river trip in
the way of a winter vacation. Their quarters were crude but
comfortable. They had had a rough voyage because of the flood, but
declared that they were going down to the Gulf if the raft held out.
Almost the first question Clay asked was about the Rock Island
robbery.
"So you have been overhauled by the officers, too, have you?" laughed
one of the young men, called Ben by his chum. "We had a bit of that,
also, but the officers didn't remain with us very long. It doesn't
take a week to search our craft!"
"Are you sure they were officers?" asked Clay.
"Oh, yes, they were officers, all right. They asked for a boy of about
twelve, who, they declared, had been seen down the river, and who is
believed to have been associated with the Rock Island robbers. They
also asked for a man of six feet and over, with red hair."
Clay looked at Alex. significantly and asked for any news they might
have of the robbery--any details they might have learned.
"Oh, we got the story from a St. Louis newspaper we begged of a
steamer captain," was the reply. "It seems that the silks, furs, and
diamonds stolen were stored in the warehouse one day and taken out by
thieves that same night. A boy answering to the description of the one
the officers asked for was seen about the premises during the
afternoon, and at one time he was observed in the company of a giant
of a man with red hair.
"It is the theory of the police that the thieves captured the boy and
forced him to enter through a broken window and unfastened the door,
a~la Oliver Twist. They believe that if he can be caught he will be
able to identify the robbers if they are caught. The red-headed man
was seen in the city, wandering about the streets, aimlessly, on the
night of the crime. It is not believed that he was interested in the
robbery personally. However, they want him because he seemed to take a
great interest in the boy."
"Have the officers found any of the stolen property?" asked Alex.
"Not that we know of," was the reply. "The robbers got off handily,
and it is believed they put the goods on board some river boat and
sent them down toward New Orleans. Diamonds, silks and furs can be
hidden in a small space."
The boys visited with the strangers for an hour or more and then went
on down the river, sailing a very little faster than the shanty boat,
which depended entirely on the current, and which was obliged to tie
up at intervals to avoid wreckage.
"I've got a notion," Alex. said, as the boys left the shanty boat in
the distance, "that the newspaper story is the right one. That boy
never took part in that robbery of his own free will, though. I am
sure of it! And the man? That was Red he described, eh?"
"It undoubtedly was," Clay replied, thoughtfully.
"That's your bosom friend!" Alex. grinned. "You let him escape!"
"What else could I do, under the circumstances?" demanded Clay. "The
fellow saved my life! Sam would have murdered me only for him!"
"Well, if he's on the level, what's he doing with a man like Sam?"
questioned Alex., still grinning.
"We shall have to leave that question to the future," was the short
reply.
"You believe that Red had a hand in the robbery at Rock Island?"
persisted the boy.
"I don't think anything about it! I'm waiting for additional
information!"
"Well, we've got a long way to go yet," Case cut in, "and we may meet
with the red-headed man again. We may meet him in some jail yet, if
our luck doesn't change!"
"Speaking about jails," Alex. questioned, "what do you make of the old
jail of a house Jule and I were locked up in? What do you think they
wanted to hold us for?"
"Probably to keep you from spying on what was going on there," Clay
suggested.
"But what was going on there?" asked Alex. "That is what _we_ didn't
find out!"
"Whatever it was," Jule observed, "the people interested in keeping it
secret took long chances when they left us in the dark room with only
an old man to guard us. And imagine them never knowing that Mose and
the dog were in the grounds!"
At mention of Mose Alex. burst into a roar of laughter.
"I never saw a human face that showed real fear until I saw Mose
looking in at the broken window!" he said, directly. "I have seen men
and women show fright, but never anything like that! He thought he had
come on a collection of ghosts! I presume he thought we, Jule and I,
were dead and buried in the cellar, and that our spirits had come
forth to haunt the murderers! And he streaked it away like a flash of
light!"
"There's probably nothing worse than the manufacture of moonshine
whisky going on in the old house," Case contributed. "Or the loot from
the warehouse may have been stored there," he added. "The boys heard
heavy articles being moved, though they may have been scared stiff and
mistook the footsteps of a mouse for the heavy noises!"
"I hope you'll get in just such a predicament some day!" growled Jule.
"It wasn't any fun, sitting there in the dark! And I expected that
crazy old man to shoot us any moment! I believe he was crazy! He acted
as if he was!"
"That's right!" exclaimed Case. "Keep on talking, and I won't have to
wash a dish all the way to the Gulf. I love to hear you get funny."
"That will do for you!" cried Jule, gleefully. "I see you washing the
supper dishes right now!"
"I'd like to go back and investigate that old house," Alex. observed.
"It would be great fun! I believe it stood there when the
cave-dwellers lived along the Chickasaw bluffs, and that was before De
Soto discovered the river and was buried in its depths."
"I thought La Salle discovered the Mississippi," Case said, with a
wink at Clay.
"He made a stab at navigating it from the Illinois river down," Alex.
answered, seeing that Case was prodding him in the desire of receiving
information. "But he gave the wrong course to the stream. The real
Mississippi turns at St. Louis and runs off toward the Rocky
Mountains."
"Yes it does!" exclaimed Jule. "You're in need of mental rest, young
man."
"Certainly it does," Alex. insisted. "The longest stretch of water
takes the river name, doesn't it? Well, the Missouri is about three
thousand miles long from the fountain-heads of the Gallatin, Madison
and Red Rock lakes to the junction with the Mississippi, while from
the junction to headwaters the Mississippi is only about twelve
hundred miles long!"
"It does seem as if the longest river should carry the name," said
Case. "In that event, this would be the Missouri river!"
"Sure it would," insisted Alex. "The river from the Red Rock lakes to
the Gulf is the longest river in the world--eight hundred miles longer
than the Amazon, though not so wide! Some day the name of the Missouri
will become the Mississippi, or the Mississippi will be called the
Missouri!"
The boys argued over the proposition for a long time, until it was
time to get supper, and then Clay and Alex. began watching for ducks,
with which the river swarms at times. While they secured three
fair-sized birds, Alex. caught fish, and insisted on their being
cooked with the ducks.
"I'll never get enough to eat if I leave the menu to you boys," he
declared, "and Mose feels about it just as I do!" he added, pulling
the little negro's ear.
"Ah sure do feel empty!" answered Mose, rolling up his eyes.
The Mississippi is a tangle of channels and islands above Memphis, and
the boys decided to tie up for the night on the down-stream side of
one of the little "tow-heads" which are so frequently seen close to
larger islands. These are formed by deposits of sand and vegetable
matter, but they increase in size rapidly as soon as cotton-wood brush
takes possession of the new ground, assisting materially in resisting
the encroachments of the current.
The islands of the Mississippi are numerous and uncertain as to
location. They have all been formed by the cutting of new channels
across headlands. The river itself winds like a very crooked snake
through the soft bottom lands of the south, and the water is forever
finding new and shorter ways to reach the Gulf.
From the junction of the Ohio, there are one hundred and twenty-five
numbered islands from Cairo to Bayou la Fourche, in Louisiana, and
besides these there are nearly as many more which bear the names of
the owners. Many of these islands are grown up with impenetrable
thickets or show only deserted fields.
In proceeding down the great river the boys had kept on only
sufficient power to gain steerway, as they were in no haste to reach
the Gulf of Mexico, which was their final destination on that trip.
They decided that day to travel nights no more.
After supper had been eaten the boys switched on all the lights and
sat out on deck. There was a brilliant moon, but they preferred to let
everybody in that vicinity know that they were there--hence the
electric lights.
"If any one sneaks up on us now," Alex. laughed, "he'll have to get to
us by the under-water route! And, even then, one of us would be apt to
see him. Captain Joe is losing his record as a watch dog, but I guess
Teddy can take his place."
Captain Joe, as if he understood every word that had been said, and
resented the insinuation, walked up to the prow and sat in a
meditative mood, looking over the small "tow-head" which sheltered the
boat from the current. He sat there motionless so long that Alex.
finally called attention to him.
"Ah knows what he's done seein'!" exclaimed Mose. "Dar's a big fat
coon watchin' us from dat mess ob bushes. Ah done seen him long time
ago!"
An inspection of the spot pointed out showed half a dozen evil-looking
negroes watching the boat.